Studying and Hot Weekends
by Evelina888
Summary: One should not wear fleece pajama pants on an unseasonably warm day in May, especially when one is trying to study. LJ


**A/N: Wrote a Lily/James one-shot. And I feel bad doing this instead of my long stories, but inspiration striked. There was nothing else to do but finish this little one-shot.**

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Lily sighed petulantly. She had worn her fleece pajama pants to the library today. And, boy, were they annoying her! So was the view from the window. Children lounged sweetly on the brightest green grass she had seen that year. The lake was sparkling, and so was the sun. The sky was that enticing shade of violet-blue. Basically, it was gorgeous outside.

And of course that was the day Lily's immune system decided to come down with a terrible cold. She guessed it was having trouble keeping up with the inadequate sleeping her body was currently getting (due to late night studying) but honestly, she needed that study time now more than ever. NEWTS were coming closer, and therefore all the seventh-year were holed up in the castle studying on this beautiful spring day.

And then there were her pajama pants. Her _fleece _pajama pants. In the _library. _On a steaming hot day. To say she was boiling was an understatement. How had wizards not found out the use of air conditioners? Even a Cooling Charm wasn't helping her plight – and, come to think of it, neither was her long hair. Seriously, why hadn't she thought to put it up?

When she'd gotten up that morning, and the sky had been clear, Lily honestly hadn't given much thought to it. So it was clear – that was great. Good. Wonderful. It wasn't as though she would be out to enjoy it. And, since she was still feeling rather sick, Lily decided to go down to study in the library still wearing her pajama bottoms. Of course she hadn't thought that the library might be rather steamy that day. It was rather like a sauna. And nobody wore PJ's to saunas. As a matter of fact, Lily admitted to herself, people went to saunas naked. And then she quickly pushed the thought out of her head with a quick glance and a shudder at the two ultra-pimply sixth-year boys sitting across the library.

A red curtain swept across her line of vision. Damn it. Again with the hair! Lily swept it into a bun at the back of her neck. It unraveled as soon as she let go. And where were all her damned ponytail holders? Lily searched her bag. At least a hairband, please . . .

Her search proved futile. Lily let out a noise of exasperation. She sullenly went back to her Charms notes. Even her favorite subject seemed unappealing right now. She just couldn't get those lovely-looking grounds out of her head . . . focus, Lily! Merlin . . .

She re-read that paragraph once again. Wait a second . . . what did that mean? Had she meant to put a 't' or an 'e' there? Because it could really be either one . . .

"Studying, huh?" A familiar voice broke into her frustrated musings.

"Who isn't?" She muttered; then she registered whose voice it was.

"James!" She exclaimed, glancing up. "Thank you! Thank you! You're my savior, you really are!" He looked down at her with an amused expression.

"Well, sit down." Lily took hold of James's arm and yanked him down into the chair next to her. He didn't object.

"Look," Lily began right away, "I am so _so _hot right now. I'm wearing fleece pajama pants – fleece! – and I forgot to put my hair up and I'm boiling away at this very moment!"

James laughed. Lily's face took on a petulant expression. "It's not funny," she grumbled.

"I have several solutions to your problem, Lils." He chuckled again. She elbowed him. "You could either Transfigure something into whatever you chicks use to hold your hair up . . . or you could go up to the dormitory and change . . . or you could Transfigure your pants."

"I am not Transfiguring my pants!" Lily screeched right away. "These are special! I have only two pairs of fleece pajama pants, and I need them for the winter!"

"You'd change them back later, Lily, duh." James teasingly tapped on her head. "Have your brains been boiled out too?"

Lily glared. "Ha ha," she muttered. Then her gaze fell on her notes and she exhaled loudly. "Actually, yes." She announced. "My brains have been melted. Is this a 't' or an 'e'?" She pushed her parchment toward her friend and pointed out the word.

James concentrated for a minute or so before sending Lily a confused look. "I'm fairly sure that's an 's', actually. Doesn't it say 'does'?"

Lily raised a skeptical eyebrow. She took the parchment back; she squinted at it and turned it back and forth. "Hmm . . . I think you're right. It does make a lot more sense . . . yeah, okay, that's an 's'." She set the paper down and turned back to James. "Thanks!"

"So," she started now, "what did you come down to the good ol' library for? Last time I checked, you hadn't been in here since OWLs."

James good-naturedly punched Lily in the arm. "As if. I've been down here loads of times!"

"Sorry, correction: I meant when was the last time you came here to actually study?"

"Hey!"

"I'm telling the simple truth."

"Ugh, fine. _Anyways_, I came down here to a) study, and b) keep you company."

"Thanks," Lily said again, pushing back her chair to stretch, "I needed somebody to rant to who wasn't me in my head, or my conscience, or my common sense."

Her friend looked at her, amused again. "And what did they say?"

"Who?" Lily asked, confused. "I haven't talked to anybody since before breakfast."

"Don't deny it." He teased. "What did you in your head, your conscience, and your common sense say to you?"

"Well, the Lily in my brain was too lazy to go up and change, and so my motor functions didn't work. The Lily in my head has also been melted, so she didn't think to Transfigure anything."

"Right." James mock-seriously nodded.

"Then my conscience was all, 'you should get your lazy butt off this chair and just go upstairs and change'" – Lily imitated a high-pitched, annoying voice – "and then my common sense upheld my conscience and said that I would feel much better if I did. However," she continued, either ignoring or not seeing James's silent laughter, "the melted Lily in my head still dominated over the rest of them, so here I am," she cast a hopeful look at James, "still burning in my fleece pajama pants and long hair, and still exasperated and frustrated because of it."

James was now in minor hysterics, and as soon as Lily finished he let it all out in such a giant belt of laughter that if the librarian had found where the source of it was, they would surely have been banned from the library. As it was, Madam Pince (young, cruel and French) didn't find them because Lily had managed to snag a table in a secluded corner of the library.

Lily was annoyed. "Merlin, you were just teasing me, weren't you? And now you think I'm a crazy lunatic. Well, no," she corrected herself, "you already know that I'm a crazy lunatic."

James soon recovered. "Don't worry, I've seen crazier."

"You have?" Lily shot him an incredulous look. "Is she my long-lost twin sister from a parallel universe?"

The black-haired boy laughed yet again. "Never mind," he assured her, "you're the craziest person I've ever met."

"Yes, yes," Lily admitted, now grudgingly, "now can you please help me solve my problem?"

"Still on the pajama problem? I would have thought that your teamed-up conscience and common sense would have kicked in already and made you Transfigure something." James teased.

"Puh-leeze," Lily scoffed, "you know I suck at Transfig."

"And what does that mean?"

"That means you're going to do it for me."

James didn't protest. "After all," he said, "you do suck at it," – Lily made a face – "and I feel like being nice today."

He Transfigured one of her quills into a ponytail holder, and held it out.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Lily squeezed James in a tight hug.

"It's no problem, Lils. I'm still sure that you could do it by yourself."

"I do not get you. First, you admit that I suck at Transfiguration, and now you're telling me that I could do it?" Lily huffed in exasperation. "Sometimes, I do not get you, James Potter." She bound her hair up in a bun at the top of her head.

"Well, it's easier to understand me than it is to understand you," James teased. "Remember how we established that you were the craziest person I'd ever met?"

"Well, actually," Lily started, "I might not be the craziest person you've ever met, because people do get really weird dreams a lot – have you ever had that dream where all those green aliens on brooms sweep down on you, and then you realize that the only way to escape is to fly on a broom, and you think you're about to faint from dread, and then the aliens turn into Bludgers, and they start making this high-pitched screaming sound and you wake up and realize that it's either your alarm clock or your stupid blonde best friend – cough cough Marlene cough cough – trying to wake you up."

James nearly fell over from laughter. "No, I've never experienced that, partly because I'm not afraid of flying on a broom, partly because my best friend is not blond _or_ Marlene, and mostly because I'm not weird like you."

Lily shoved her shoulder into James's. "And here I thought you would understand," she scoffed. Then Lily did one of her signature Lily things that she suddenly got up and did without any explanation. She stood up, squinted at James, walked around him, then walked around the table, and sat down again.

James raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"James, where are your books?" Lily asked.

The boy threw his hands up. "You did all that just to find out if I had my books with me or not?"

"Well, yes," Lily said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I had to make sure you weren't suddenly going to whip your bag out from behind your back or something and be like 'ha ha ha I had it all this time, you're so stupid, Lily!'"

"Lily Evans, you are undoubtedly the strangest person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting – in my dreams or not."

"Glad you like it," Lily said dismissively. "Now where are your notes?"

James grinned. "Well, I guess I didn't come down here to study. It was mostly to keep you company."

"Great," Lily drawled, "now we have to trudge back up to Gryffindor Tower to get your bag _and _a change of clothes."

"I can just _Accio _my bag, Lily."

"Well I can't _Accio _my clothes!" The girl shrieked.

"So how are you going to solve this problem?" James responded. The two stared at each other for a while.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed, after about two minutes of total silence. "I am _so_ smart!"

"Oh?" James asked, amused for what must have been the five hundredth time in the past 10 minutes.

"Yes! I can just roll my pants up!" And she proceeded to roll her pants up until they were about mid-thigh.

James tried not to stare at her bare legs. Thankfully, Lily didn't notice if he succeeded or not.

"I'm in heaven," she sighed, stretching her legs out under the table and closing her eyes. Then she opened one eye and cast a baleful look at her Charms notes. "Boy, do I not want to work now."

James looked at Lily for several seconds. "Lily, how long have you been in here?"

Lily closed her eyes again. "Since before breakfast."

"Have you eaten anything?"

"Um, does plain toast and fruit count?"

"What have you gotten done?"

"The practice practical test portion of Potions. And the essay for Muggle Studies. And I'm about halfway done with Ancient Runes. Then when I got bored of that I read my Charms notes about 50 billion times. Then I got uncomfortably hot. Then you showed up."

"You finished the practice Potions practical?! All of it?! And all that other stuff?!" No answer.

"Okay, moving on . . ." James said, shaking his head in astonishment. "Enough work for one day!"

Lily sat bolt upright. "What? No!"

With a laugh, James grabbed her hand. "I'm taking you to the kitchens for lunch."

"Then again. . ." Lily reflected. Suddenly she snatched her hand out of his. "Race you there!" She left her stuff lying on the table and, ignoring Madam Pince's stern reprimands, the two ran out of the library gleefully.


End file.
